What Everyone Has Been Waiting For

Ah yes, the long awaited Homecoming Blog is here! And just so you all know, I apologize in advance for the typos as I am having a sort of phalangial problem today. And for all of you that wonder how I spelled that one, I looked it up in what I can only assume is my mother college anatomy book. Using my resources to their finest.

The week's festivities that started on Monday with Rock Around the Clock were followed by a 'W', not as in our president, against Indianola on Tuesday. The parade where I pelted candy at unsuspecting kids and friends with candy, and probably consumed more candy than actually got eaten by parade watchers. Friday I left school and went to Ashley's to watch One Tree Hill, o yeah...it's back!, and from there we ran some errands and went tailgating around 6:15. We hung out with some friends in the parking lot drinking pop and eatting burgers until game time. Once we entered the game we found the stands packed and weaseled our way through to get a seat. The football game was horribly boring so a bunch of us left and went to Culvers for a little snack. We left Culvers and went to Brians house to watch the Exorcist. For my first time watching the movie, I was a little scared but found myself wondering why I had myself all worked up about it. It really wasn't that bad. After the movie Ashley and I came to my house because Ashley was staying with my while her parents road-tripped in the mo-ho to the Iowa/Michigan game.

Saturday morning we woke up and went to the mall to look around. We went to the shoe store and got bored and came home before we actually entered the mall. We went to Walgreens because I needed to drop off some film and we picked up so fake nails. When we got back we applied them and for being unprofessional, they looked pretty darn good. People didn't even know they were fake and some asked where we got them done. I got a pedicure while Ashley got her hair done and while I was waiting for the polish to dry my phone rang. It was Ashley saying that she didn't know about her hair and she was crying because she thought it was that bad. I told her I would be there as soon as I could. I paid and left and headed straight for Ashley's house. I opened the door and found her crying on the couch, and yes, it really was 'that bad.' I calmed her down and we grabbed some curling irons and headed for home. We decided we should probably just re-do her hair so we pulled it out and I put it in hot rollers for her.

Once that project was done I went downstairs to get my phone and saw that I had a missed call. It was from Michael, my date, so I called him back. He had gone to Illinois the previous night so he could take the ACT. I wasn't expecting him home til around 5:30. When I asked him were they were at 4:00 he told me they were 22 miles out. I essentially hung up the phone instantly and ran for the shower. We got clean and beautiful and put our dresses on about the time the dorrbell rang signifying the arrival of date number one. We freaked out and were running around rampantly putting on the final touches to our looks. Once ready we headed down the stairs and to the living room where we met our patiently waiting dates. We did the mandatory exchange of flowers and half a million pictures. We left my house and headed for Becca's for group pictures.

Becca's was another half a million pictures and by then end my face was permanently numb from smiling. Once pictures were over we went to the Tavern II for dinner. It was a little bit more than a Pizza Hut, but not by much. I wasn't very hungry and neither was Ashley but MIchael said he hated it when girls split a dish and wouldn't let us. So instead we both got heaping helpings of alfredo which neither of us ate. We gave it to John and that was the end of our eating. I forgot the mention that there were THIRTY THREE people in our dinner party. I didn't talk to half of them and frankly, I don't really care. I had fun with the people around me and that is all that matters. We left the Tavern and arrived at the dance around nine. We took pictures and headed in to "get the party started." We danced and were crazy for two hours and then we came home, changed, and went to Joes.

At Joes we watched TV, played cards, Sean kicked my ass at foosball, and I learned a lot more about poker and the game called Omaha. It was fun and I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't been so tired. But it was a good time none the less. We left Joes about a quarter to 2:00 and Michael took me and Ashley home. Ashley and I came in, headed straight up the stairs, discussed a little, and hit the sack shortly after.

All in all, I had a good time. It was fun but nothing so spectacular sticks out in my mind about it. I am guessing that there are a few dissappointed readers. Owell, and no, I was not "slobbered" on, Aunt Stacy, groped, my friends who read this, and he didn't "stick with me all the way up to my room" mom! I must admit though, after looking at some pictures, Michale sure knows how to clean up! I will bring pictures the next time I see all of you and perhaps if I find time I will e-mail some. I had fun with my friends and I had fun with Michael, and that is how it will remain.

Archetype: original model or type after which other similar things are patterned

Exponerse: to expose oneself

I must add, Steven has this nifty hand-held electronic ditionary thing that we have been playing with in Calc so I have been learning a lot of new words. I have still been keeping up with my math though. I definitely kicked Steven's butt on the quiz we took today over derivatives. I tried to explain them to him before the quiz and he just looked at me. For once I finally understand what it is that I am doing!

Frocks and Clocks

Well, the day that the female readers have been waiting for is here. I have time to blog about the dress, or the "frock" as Aunt Stacy puts it. I like it a lot and it is oober cute! As for the rest of you, I don't care if you don't like it, it is my dance! Anyway, it is a halter style dress that hangs to my knees. The top of the dress connects to a ring and then it ties from the ring around my neck. The ties are a little longer so it looks like a scarf, similar to the effect of my dress freshman year, going down to about my mid-back. The color is a little more difficult to describe. Picture magenta, purple, pink, red, a beigy/toupe color, and some blues. Then picture something that you would never expect to see on my body because that is what my dress looks like! The colors are all splashed on the dress at about a 45 degree angle. They all blend and unblend with eachother creating the perfect look. If you are having problems visualizing, let me know, I will send you a picture after Saturday.

The homecoming week festivities kicked off yesterday with the annual Rock Around the Clock. It is a silly homecoming tradition in which you create a team of 10 of your friends and compete in wacky events to essentially see how much pudding you can cover yourself with. My team, The Future Wives Club, consisted of Ashley, Butter, Beans, Jill, Hoov, Steffi, Erin, Alicia, Becca, Emily, and myself. For our nicknames we chose our future husbands, I, for instance, was Mrs. M. Phelps, as in the olympic swimmer. Others were Mrs. Pitt, Mrs. Damon, Mrs. Kutcher etc., and my mother, our sponsor, Mrs. Robinson.

Our first event was the pudding slip-and-slide relay where you have to slide across tarps what are covered with chocolate pudding. You put half your team on one side and the other half on the other and the next person can go when you slap hands. So needless to say, we had the messiest event first so we hugged every clean person in sight. Next we went to the cheeto throw where you put shaving cream on someone's face and the rest of the team threw cheeze balls to make them stick. We ended up with 5 cheeze balls stuck to Steffi's face. Other events included the egg and spoon race, pass the orange without using your hands or arms, WHICH WE FINALLY COMPLETED AND WON!, the bat race where you have to spin 10 times around and then run around a cone, look for Ashley's blog on that, it was hilarious, and other various assorted crazy events. I think we ended up winning 4 of 12 events which isn't bad for us.

At the conclusion of the event Ashley and I went to VI with a bunch of people from different teams. I bet 30 of us showed up there at about 10:30 when they closed at 11:00. Let's just say the ONE and ONLY waitress there was a little pissed that what looked like was going to be a typical Monday night, turned into a hoard of hyped-up teenagers covered in pudding. I had a cookies and cream shake, it was yummy!

With that said, I must go continue getting ready for my game tonight. We open conference with INDIANOLA! Maybe Manser will come...? Look for a Blog sometime after homecoming, I know all of you will be dying to know how it went. And o yes, does anyone know if Dana is reading this. I don't think I have her correct e-mail address so if someone wants to send her the link, that would be awesome! I leave you with the words.....

Histrionic: Over emotional or dramatic

Enloquecer: To drive crazy

Dancing Queen

I am sort of excited to write tonight, why, I have no idea. We played North at North tonight. We won, of course, as did Varsity picking up their first 'W'. Then again, they played the same players that JV played. Anyway, it hasn't been a very exciting weekend. I had multiple hours of show choir this weekend which meant that I danced, and danced, and danced all day! Eight hours on Saturday, and seven hours on Sunday. We choreographed 2 full songs so I guess that is a plus. Our opener is Danny Boy, which is pretty rock and roll, and then the 4th song is called Mama Says, and it has more of a jazzy feel to it.

In Danny Boy, Matt Burch, this little red-haired sophomore is my partner. At first he didn't speak to me, but now we have a good relationship started. He is my favoirite sophomore. He is hilarious, he isn't the best dancer in the world and our choreographer was cleaning and every time it was Burchy, he would say something like "show-choir nazi" or "yeah I know I can't dance, do you have to point out EVERY mistake!" It was a good time. Then when we were working on our stage enterance, we were all shoved in back because we follow a soloist on to the stage, Burchy and some other guys were screwing around and I was loopy so it was a blast. Steven kept telling me there was a formula and he sits next to me in calc so he knows how good I am with formulas. Then John Miller kept calling me "mommy" because I told him were to go a few times so he decided I was like his mommy keeping him in line.

Saturday night I went to Colby's. There were so many people there and they ranged from freshman to seniors. I played some badmitton and got in on some kickball but then it was pointless to play because we couldn't even see the ball. So Ashley and I decided to sit and talk with some people. They were talking about people and events that we were clueless about so we walked down to the fire and talked. Then Steven and Jenna-Lee came down followed by some other random sopomores so me and Ash decided to go back up to the house. We entered a conversation about Homecoming which was sort of interesting because I hadn't talked to Michael about it since he asked me and no one really knew that we were going together so I got a lot of interesting looks as well as some interesting comments were said. The best part of the night was when Jenna walked up to Michael and told him what the plan was for him and me to go with her and Goers and a few other people. I looked at Michael as soon as she left and said, sorry, but I can't go with her. We do not get a long nor can I stand to be with her for extended periods of time. Luckily he agreed so we decided to go with the huge group that we sort of talked about going in earlier. That was an experience. The sad thing is that Jenna already had a date and decided that she was going to go with Goers and Goers just couldn't say no even though he really doesn't want to go with her. Long story.

The night ended with Ashley and I at Joe's with Brian, Erik, and Poop Shoot. We talked for awhile and then we all had to leave so Ashley took Brian and Erik to Brian's because Erik's car was there. As we started driving I noticed that there was a spider on the windshield and that it was on the inside. I said something and then Brian started screaming, Erik started laughing, I started to back away from it and the Erik touched Ashley's neck and she screamed and slammed on her breaks. It was hilarious. Once we got to Brian's, which is only around the corner from Joe's, Ashley and I jumped out of the car and got Erik and Brian to kill the spider for us. Meanwhile Brian's neighbor came outside to see what was going on and then once the spider was dead and gone I still sat in the backseat on the way home. That was funny for me but I am pretty sure that you had to be there to think the same way.

That was essentially my weekend. I have to go get a dress this weekend as well and finalize my plans with Michael. He is sort of busy that weekend which he just informed me of last night. Everything should work out fine though.

Innately: possessed as an essential characteristic

And here is one everyone will love;
Boracho: drunk

My True Learning Experience

I don't have anything to say minus I had an awesome time tonight at Colby's. Too much to explain, too little time. But, I did realize that I left out a particularly important part of last night. I learned the Ocsar Mayer song! So I will leave you with the lyrics:

My bologna has a first name, it's O-S-C-A-R
My bologna has a second name, it's M-A-Y-E-R!
Now I could eat it every day, and if you asked me why I'll saaaaaaaaay......
'cause Oscar Mayer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A!

Homecoming and the Like

The end of another week is here and I do actually have news to write about. I don't remember if I have already explained this but who cares, you will read it anyway. Anyway, I have a date to homecoming. Now, before you get all excited, you have to hear me out. I am going with my FRIEND Mike. This is the kid that lives down the street from me and I wrote about in a previous blog. He called me up on Wednesday night and asked me if he asked Ashley and one of his friends asked me to the dance, would it work. So, I talked to him for about half and hour and then I tried calling Ashley but she had gone to bed for the night. So I talked to her the next morning and we tried to figure out what we should do. I also knew that the chances of Jeronimo, the "friend," asking me during fifth period were pretty high.

Fifth period came and went and nothing happened so I forgot about it for the rest of the school day. I took Ashley home because her car was being fixed and we talked about it some more. We came to the conclusion that I needed to talk to Michel and that he obviously needed to talk to her if he wanted to ask her to the dance. So I called Michael on Thursday night when I got home from Ames, we lost but that is another story. We talked for about 40 minutes and we were trying to find an answer and he said, "Hey, let me throw a curve ball at you," so I said sure. He said, "Alyssa, would you like to go to Homecoming with me?" And I was like, "um, wait a second, what just happened?" He told me that a light had come on and that he didn't know why he hadn't asked me before asking me about the other plan. I asked him if he was sure and if this decision wasn't just based on something that I had said earlier in the conversation and he said it wasn't and that he had actually been thinking about it and talking with his mom about it for a few days or so. So we talked through it and we worked it out that we would go together.

I called Ashley when I got off the phone with Michael and I didn't exactly tell her the "whole" story. She was confused and we talked for a little while and then she got off the phone. She calls me back a few minutes later because she has gotten a phone call at home and on her cell from a number she doesn't recognize. She reads me the number and I know that it is Jeronimo. He was going to call her to see if she would go with him now. This was only complicated by the fact that Brian, a different friend of ours, had told us that Brandon wanted to ask Ashley. So she called him up and now Ashley and Brandon are going together, as are Michael and I, and poor Jeronimo has no one to go with. I don't know what he is going to do and I felt kind of bad, but then I realized that it wasn't my fault, and it wasn't Ashley's fault, it was Michaels fault so owell.

The moral of the story is, I have a date, he is my friend, he was a dumbass about some things last week, but, I don't really care. I think I am doing the right thing. I know that I will have a good time with him and I know that we both know this is a strictly plutonic date. (I just spelled that like plutonium, how do you spell it?) I am a little worried about what Butter is going to say to me. We had kind of talked about going together but that was because I never thought that I was going to have a date. We never set anything in stone so it isn't so much that that I am worrying about, but the fact that she hates Michael because of a homecoming situation from last year. But, Butter does tend to hold grudges longer than she should and she just hates him because he liked another girl shortly after taking her to the dance. Longer story, less interesting. I am looking forward to the dance, now all I have to do is find a dress!

On a less happy note, the JV Dragons lost to Ames last night. It wasn't a total blow-out though, we did put up a good fight. Even our coach said that she had never seen us play like that and that is was the best we had played so far this season. She also said that would be the best team we saw all season so I guess we lost, but it wasn't to a bad team, ah-hem...ROOSEVELT. Tonight Brooks sat the seniors down and wanted to discuss the "issues." He said that he received calls from parents and that he wanted to know what our issue was. We said nothing because that is what we were told to do. He talked himself in circles and came out of the conversation a bigger idiot than he was upon entering. I guess there is a meeting on Monday but I am not too concerned. I like where I am at and frankly, I am happy that Wanda is my coach and not him. She is such a better coach and she is way more fun than Brooks will ever be.

On a different note, the Dragon football season got underway tonight. We won in overtime. And we just barely missed it. We had scored but the other team got a chance to score because we went first. They scored too but they missed the field goal so we won by one point. I didn't really see much of the game, I was catching up with friends and talking. You know, the typical high school football game scene. I went to Brian's after the game with Ashley. It wasn't too bad a time. We just hung out and I taught Joe how to use his phone. We watched South Park, and as much as I hate that show, it was hilarious. It was the one where they think Kenny has a ticket that they won and need, so theybuild a ladder to heaven so they can get the ticket back and claim their prize. One of the guys mixes Kenny's ashes into milk because he thinks it is chocolate milk mix, and he has all the weird dreams and visions of Kenny. That part was sort of sick, but the rest was funny. All in all, the night wasn't too bad. But, I do have 7 hours of choreography tomorrow so I need to get some sleep. Later

WORD OF THE DAY:

Truncate: to shorten by or as if cutting off the end or top; to lop
(Brooks used it in math and I thought it was a funny word)

Mayordomo: butler

Patricia, Names, and the Usual

Well, it is abnormally early for me to be writing but, since I have a break between school and practice I thought that I would blog. Last night there was a match between your good ol' Dragons and the Rough Riders of Roosevelt. It was a pretty good night for everyone, except varsity. Once again, they had a 2-0 lead going into the third game, and decided to get beat in the next three games. Point spread, Dragons-Riders, 1st game: 25-12; 2nd game: 25-14; 3rd game: 12-25; 4th game: 25-27; 5th game: 11-15. This was varsity. The scores of my games, 25-12 and 25-14. We even beat them in the 3rd game which didn't count because we had already won the match outright. Anyway, the varsity didn't do too horribly in 4 out of 5 games, I bet you can see which one wasn't so hot, but, I don't want to talk about volleyball for the rest of my life.

I have started to see that I am going to need to apply myself in my classes if I am going to get anywhere in them. And mom it isn't because I fall asleep doing my homework or with the lights on, I just haven't reached the full swing of things yet. What does still seem to amuse me is that Pat Freese, better known as Patricia to those of us who crossed the Atlantic this summer, is absolutely clueless about the goings on in Spain. I think deep down inside he knows that certain friend of mine was glued to his hip, but I don't think that he wants to admit it. Instead, everyone else on the trip, that cared anyway, knew what was going on and was a little disturbed. So everyday, little Patricia comes up to me and asks me if I am going to tell him "my story" today. And everyday it is the same response, "before I graduate, I will tell you," followed by whatever insult I can throw at him. I even bribed him the other day. I told him that if he bought a carnation from me and not Ashley, I would tell him. He said that he would buy one from both of us so I said that would work. I have yet to see that dollar and I still have 12 left to sell, so needless to say, he doesn't know "my story."

This just cracks me up because Patricia is about 5 foot 7 or so, and he is a wrestler. So his shoulders just take over the little frame of his body. He also has some funky, bleach-blonde hair that is getting too long and curls. He sort of looks like a girl. Because he sort of looks like a girl, isn't what I call him a girl name. While in Spain he thought it would be cute to argue with me. Little did he know that I get my sarcasm from my father and pretty much shut him up everytime he tried to annoy me. So, I started calling him Patricia because we were in Spain and it seemed to fit him better. Everyone started calling him Patricia, to include my mother and the rest of the adults. (you have to pronounce Patricia giving the 'i' more of an 'e' sound, to make it spanish for the english Patricia.) So that is how Patricia got his name. To this day, we all still refer to him as Patricia.

I am pretty good at giving people nicknames that stick. Lets just compile a list:

Gibosn: a friend of mine who I played basketball with freshman year, everyone calls her "gibby"

Sara: that started as a bunch of different names and changed from 7th grade on, she has been "Beans" or some variation of that word since about freshman year

Butter: not completely mine as her brother was called that, but that is the only thing that I call her anymore

Me: I am pretty sure that I looked up the words for "big" and "hair" in my spanish book in 8th grade, "Grande Pelo", and now I have been "GRANDE" forever

Me: I also was the one who misspelled 'blonde' and am now referred to as "the bloned"

Erin: I called her a lot of things when we were young, but every time, the prefix was "pee." There was "pee-body," "pee-brain," and a bunch more. Now she is just called "loo" for "erna loo"

Kevin: I started calling him "kevie" and now the people that talk about him call him that

I am sure that I have missed some because my memory is starting to go, but I have given quite a few people nicknames. They are just more fun than real names. I have about a thousand for Ashley, but I usually just call her Ashley unless she is being "cute" and we are just talking.

Well, I will once again leave you with the new words for today.

ENGLISH
Monotonous: Unvarying in vocal inflection or pitch
(heard the word before, never knew what it meant)

SPANISH
Hojas(silent H): Leaves, also can mean a piece of paper

Intelligence at its Finest

I don't really have any inspiration for this blog. I did end up going to Cedar Rapids on Saturday. I shopped with my mom and per usual, didn't find the elusive pair of jeans that I am continually searching for. We left the mall and went back to Grandma's house. Aunt Stacy was there so we chatted awhile until she left and then dad started dinner. While dad was slaving away in the kitchen, mom and I went to Old Navy and to the good ol' Hy Vee to get some groceries for grandma. While at the courtesy counter, renting a movie, I had a conversation with the girl working behind the counter. She wondered why I was in CR because when I showed her my drivers license, it said Urbandale. She explained to us that she used to life in Waukee and then moved to Montana and back to CR to attend Coe.

It was also a marathon spanish day for me yesterday. I started my spanish homework in the car, then I did a little after dinner while everyone else was talking, and then I spent another 2 hours working on it while the family watched a movie. I did, however, learn a plethera of new spanish words. The book we have now is different from our old books, so the vocab is different. For instance, La Frontera, means "the frontier." Now, I asked myself, why on earth would I need to know the spanish word for "frontier." My mother said that I could talk about Thanksgiving in spanish now. That is all fine and well, but the spanish people don't even have a "thanksgiving" so to speak. I guess if someone ever asks me about our history, I can say that we moved on "la frontera." I have actually been learning quite a few new spanish words lately. Probably because my brain is finally leaving summer mode and entering the state where it knows it has to work. Which, sucks because I actually have to think now.

Speaking of thinking, I think that some of the people in my AP English class should have thought before they signed up. We read Oedipus, granted, it was Sopecles who wrote it, but, I heard some pretty bonehead things said in response to the text. This wasn't my first time reading it so I was a little advanced in my knowledge of the plot, but there were people that had no idea what was going on. The story is pretty sick and twisted. Oedipus was exiled to the country side because of a prophecy that said his fate was to kill his father and marry his mother. Since he was exiled at such a young age, he had no idea that the people he called "mom" and "dad" weren't his biological parents. So when he kills a random man on the road, he has no idea that is it his dad. Then he goes back to his home town and answers the riddle of the Sphynx. He is the hero and is crowned king. He then marries his mom and bears children with her. All of a sudded the city has this horrible plague and Oedipus sends Creon, his brother in law, to the gods to get the answer. The answer is that he must find the murderer of Leius, Oedipus' dad, whom Oedipus has killed but doesn't know it. When Oedipus finds out that he is in fact the murderer, and that the prophecy has come true, he gouges his eyes out with pins from his dead wife's/mother's clothing. Jocasta, Oedipus' mother and wife, killed herself after she found out the prophecy was true. So now we have a blind, murdering, king, his dead queen, and his children whom are full of incest. Sounds like a good time to me. Oedipus wants to be sent back to the mountain where he was left as a child because he says he must live out his fate. I don't remember if he does go back to the mountain or not, I didn't really read the end. But there you go, a brief summary of the classic Oedipus The King.

I also learned a lot of new vocabulary in Oedipus the King. I didn't look up any of the words I didn't know because it would have taken forever and I got the jist without the help of those words. However, I have decided to add my own little quirk to the end of my blogs. I am going to write a word and it's definition at the end of each blog. This word will be one that I have learned for the day. As they say, "you learn something new everyday," so I am going to enlighten you with a little high school learning.

ENGLISH
Word: Auspicious
Definition: Marked by success; fortunate; prosperous

SPANISH
Word: Bosillo
Definition: Pocket

Computer Bytes

Coming into this weeking I was a little scared about what I was going to do for "entertainment." It was the big volleyball tournament for varsity in Cedar Rapids. Word on the street was after Tuesday night, Brooks was looking for a tenth to accompany him to Northeast Iowa. I had my hopes up because as we were getting on the bus to head out for Ottumwa on Tuesday, Brooks called three of us, myself included, into the office to get out varsity jerseys. He told us that he wanted us to dress. This was a little shocking as I was definitely not expecting it. At the end of the night, JV, my team!, was the only team to defeat the Bulldogs. VARSITY LOST! I am trying not trying to sound happy, but with all the crap that I have gone through this year, it was a little satifying to know that Brooks' "all-start" team, lost.

Anyway, Butter and Sara were going to CR and Ashley had to work. I have more than three friends, but over the course of the summer, they were the only ones I hung out with much. School is just starting so I haven't really found different/more people to do things with. Peter was haning out with the guys so I couldn't do anything with him either. So because I had nothing to do tonight, I went to Hy-Vee to get my paycheck. I spent about 45 minutes there conversing with other employees and finally returned home after a trip to the Super Targetto. I arrived home around 5 and decided to work on some CD's for volleyball. The computer was stupid and slow so I called comp-USA to ask how long they needed our computer for to fix it. I was told 3-7 days. I asked if there was anyway to get it back in a lesser amount of time and he said yeah, just make back-ups of what you need to keep, and put in the Operating Systems installation CD and follow the directions. So I did.

At first try, I did not succeed. So, like I am always told, "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Upon retrying, it worked so I entered the setup wizard and spend an hour and a half trying to install and overwrite existing Windows XP files. After I finally got done putting the Operating systems onto the computer, I needed to re-install everything that I took off the computer so I started with the internet. I went through the motions as instructed by the CD. The wizard asked me if I used an Ethernet of USB connection. I chose ethernet because that is what we have. It said that our computer didn't have an ethernet card. I tried to use different installation disks to get this card that I knew was in the computer to be read. I even talked to K Hydes father, the owner of his own telecommunications service, and he wasn't sure what was wrong. So finally, I read in-depth, the owners manual for our Dell Dimmension 4600. It talked all kinds of crazy and finally I put in the Resource CD and tried to find the ethernet driver. I found the driver and unzipped the files. I put the ActionTec installation CD back into the drive E:/ to re-install the internet. IT WORKED! Only 7 tries and 2 hours later!

Once I had established the connection I had to re-setup all the accounts so everyone would be able to access their name. I finnally finished installing the Operating system and the interned around 11:30. I have yet to install our CD burning program, the printer, our Word Processor, and a few other minor details. All I care about is that our computer runs faster than it did when we first bought it. So in answer to my wonderment, my "entertainment" was found in the computer. I spent my friday night, my free night to go out with my friends, at home, with an appliance.

Tommorow I coud be heading off to Cedar Rapids myself. Dad is just itching to get to the Washington High School Gym to watch the "all-star" dragons play. For the chicas it could mean a day of shopping or just hanging out with grandma. Either way, I have multips assignments to catch up on, my sleeping sort of overtook my homework this week, and I have to work on Sunday. But it is Labor Day weekend, no school on Monday and late practice for me! It looks like I have a date with my Calculus book!